Easton will try to stay perfect tonight when it hosts Emmaus. Freedom and Nazareth will meet at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium tonight, with the winner moving to 3-1 in the league.

Before the games begin, here's a collection of notes from around the league that didn't fit into this week's print package.

* * * * * * * * * *

Emmaus took a 3-0 record into last week. Running into a
Freedom team desperate for a win knocked the Green Hornets off stride, as they
were leveled 44-12.

Turnovers and an inability to move the ball early on
offense hurt Emmaus. Coach Joe
Bottiglieri (left) thought the biggest problem, however, was his players’ failure
to match Freedom’s intensity.

“We looked like we were playing to get to 4-0 and to get
to Easton,” Bottiglieri said this week. “I don’t know if you want to call it
looking ahead, but I don’t think our kids realized how good Freedom was.”

One reason Emmaus’ players may have overlooked Freedom
was the respective scores of the teams’ games against Central Catholic. Freedom
beat the Vikings 24-20, while Emmaus hammered them 38-7.

Bottiglieri doesn’t expect the Green Hornets to have trouble
mustering intensity for this week’s trip to Easton. They will again have to
play without junior running back/defensive back Chris Schiermeyer, who is still recovering from a leg injury that
has kept him sidelined all season. He could be back in a couple of weeks.

Junior Nick Boyd, a
reserve offensive lineman/linebacker who was playing on all of Emmaus’ special
teams, could also be out.

* * * * * * * * * *

Northampton hopes to have senior defensive end Derek Nebbia back in the lineup this
week. He has missed a couple of games since being injured against Nazareth.

Wide receiver Boston
Lesawitch was lost for the season with a spleen injury in Week 1, but other
than that Northampton has kept its key players on the field. Coach Jeff Brosky said this week the Konkrete
Kids have to stay healthy, because they don’t have a lot of depth.

Northampton also hopes to build off last week’s game
against Bethlehem Catholic, when it ran for a season-high 191 yards.

“I do believe we executed a little bit better and
exploited some of the things they were doing defensively,” Brosky said.

* * * * * * * * * *

Easton coach Steve
Shiffert (right) was in attendance when Emmaus played Bethlehem Catholic a few
weeks ago. When his Red Rovers face the Green Hornets tonight, he wants them to
avoid allowing the kind of scoring spurts Emmaus produced in its 3-0 start.

Containing Emmaus’ blitz packages is Shiffert’s other
concern.

“The thing is, they’ve got three big kids up front in the
defensive line,” Shiffert said. “Their linebackers are pretty active. The blitz
has been a bit of a problem for us. We’re going to have to do well up front
because we haven’t had a consistent offensive line in terms of personnel.”

* * * * * * * * * *

Central Catholic will make its fourth try for LVC win No.
1 when it plays Northampton tonight. The Vikings probably won’t collect a
victory unless they improve their red-zone efficiency. They had several early
cracks at Easton last week because of Red Rover turnovers and didn’t turn any
of them into scores.

“When you play
anyone in the league, you can’t be at the 30-yard line four times and not get
any points,” Central Catholic coach John
Cupples said. “Defensively we did a good job containing the run. But we’ve
got to be able to score points. It started to wear on the kids.”

The Vikings have also been victimized by big plays again
this season. Cupples said players have often been positioned to make tackles but
have not finished them.

The Vikings have had several young players start to
emerge in this season of transition. Sophomore Jack Nosovitch has started at linebacker the last three weeks.
Junior Ryan Belville has been
Central Catholic’s top receiver and also played well as a kick returner and
cornerback.

* * * * * * * * * *

Bethlehem Catholic again struggled to score last week,
managing just six points in a loss to Northampton that dropped it to 0-4. This
week the Golden Hawks face a Liberty defense that has surrendered 141 points,
the second most in the league.

Bethlehem Catholic coach Joe Henrich noted that Liberty,
which is also 0-4, has played a tougher opening schedule than his team.

“I think offensively, I’d like to see us not leave open
plays,” Henrich said. “I’d like to see us capitalize on more open plays, plays
that are there for us to be had. Hopefully this week we can put ourselves in
some situations to have plays and then capitalize on them.

“Defensively, I want to see better execution
consistently. We’ve grown and made less and less mental mistakes. Now we have
to start to get rid of the physical mistakes.”

* * * * * * * * * *

One stat that jumped out from Freedom’s 44-12 win over
Emmaus last week was the number of passing attempts for senior quarterback Brian Uliana (left). He threw the ball a
season-low 18 times. He had attempted at least 25 passes in each of the
Patriots’ first three games.

Uliana was efficient with his throws, completing 13 of
them for 106 yards and two touchdowns. He did not throw an interception for the
first time this season.

“We looked at our numbers after the first couple of
weeks,” Freedom coach Jason Roeder said. “I don’t think we expect to throw the
ball 30-some times a game.”

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About this blog

Morning Call Sports Reporters Stephen Miller and Tom Housenick blog about high school and college sports action on and off the field in and around the Lehigh Valley, only at themorningcall.com.

Meet the bloggers

TOM HOUSENICK watches every move Lehigh’s C.J. McCollum makes on the court, laughs at every joke by Lafayette coach Fran O’Hanlon and watches all the Divisions II and III coaches and players do it for the love of the game. Basketball makes the cold weather season go by fast. Already can’t wait for late February and early March when each possession could result in a season ending or continuing on.

Wrapping up his ninth year at The Morning Call, STEPHEN MILLER is back for year No. 4 on the LVC football beat. He chronicled Central Catholic's state-championship run in 2010, watched Nazareth win its first LVC title in 2011 and saw the league crown tri-champions for the first time in 2012. He has also covered the Phillies, college football and a variety of prep sports while with The Morning Call. To stay updated on the 2013 LVC football season, check out the Varsity blog and follow him on Twitter @mcall_smiller.